India and Regional Stereotypes

Trying to distinguish between those that aiyyo,aielee, amma, eesshh. Be it a chai party or kitty party or a high society gathering, regional stereotypes is very often the topic of discussion. Stereotyping isn’t great and is amusing when some people get offended with these… Please proceed only if you belong to those class of people who can laugh at themselves.

Tamilian: A Tamilian Anna is:

• Often pictured as the brainy serious person who excels at academics
• Loves his carnatic music and quizes his friends and family on the raga’s of a song on hearing it
• one who is asked to sing songs for any and every family gathering ‘oru paatu paadein’
• an ardent religion follower with photos of God staring down from every possible wall in the house
• Cannot get over idolizing Jayalalitha and Rajnikanth
• Hates Hindi
• Often look jaundiced. No they do not suffer from any health issues. They are just beauty concious and love to use their turmeric face pack in excess.
• someone who doesn’t like women to be size 0 in fact, they like them a little (or a little more than) plump. Thunder Thigh Rambha would sure be an example of this. Most actors belonging to this industry would easily be XL or XXL. Apart from this the hero in their movies can single handedly fight 20 bad guys and still save the girl!

Punjabi: A Punjabi is often pictured to be:

• with a dhol doing his signature ‘balle balle’
• over the top and excited
• the funny one and one who laughs the loudest
• drinking uncontrollably
• gauges how good a wedding party is by the amount and quality of alcohol being served ONLY
• love ghyo (a punju term for ghee ), lassi and pronthe (paranthas)
• have a lot of ‘teri toh …‘s in his dictionary
• screaming ‘chak de phatte’  out of ecstasy
• fierce and brave. Thus the unsurprising large number of Punjabi’s in the army
• extremely hard working and do not shun away from doing menial jobs
• the jaan and shaan of a gathering always
• food lovers and a large percentage of obese people in the country would belong to this category
• the kind who overdo make-up
• The kind who love to have some awesome shawsome type rhyming usages

 

Malayali: A Mallu chettan:

• loves coconuts and has it on his plate, on his head, on the sink (to do vessels with the chagrin), in the fireplace and everywhere possible
• just cant do without rice and needs a mid day meal having rice. Due to its presence in every household at any given point in time, mallus (Malayali’s) have discovered alternate uses of rice. I have even seen it being used as glue! (You already have an answer to the standard interview question which says ‘Give me few non-conventional uses of blah. If the blah is rice, we have hit the jackpot!)
• doesn’t use shampoos very often. The common/healthy practice is to pluck certain leaves and flowers and use the soaked water to wash hair
• man is that typical mooch (moustache) man you have read about or seen
• can be found anywhere and everywhere.There is a popular saying, “You dont meet mallus they just happen to you” 😛
• is one who shops for ONLY two things (esp. in mallu land) – sarees and gold
• is obsessed with fairness creams and powders
• loves his lungis for various reasons…1. when getting bored u can fold it, undo it, redo it and all in public… 2. makes scratching easy 3. facilitates unrestricted ventilation due to reason 1.
• When it comes to movies here, I think they are very similar to their Tamil counterparts with the difference being, the hero here would first fold his lungi ( while the bad guys stand and watch) and  fight a whole battalion of bad guys alone and save the girl! The hero is in short a lungi clad superman! 😛

Kerala fact-sheet: half or more than half malayali’s are NRIs settled in ‘DuFai‘ or ‘GElf‘. They louve to catch the ootoo (auto) by ccch-ccch‘ing it (a way of calling any and every random person and we thought call signals only existed in the animal world!). This state has 100% literacy but no they still don’t believe in working… They believe in strikes. Which turns out to be a blessing when you are in school or college. Who doesn’t like extra holidays?! 🙂

Gujrati: A Gujju bhai:

• is known to be stingy
• is the businessman of India
• is a vegetarian
• likes everything sweet including their dal (lentil soup) !
• has a taste for shiny/sparkly clothes
• is exaggerative
• calls every one baain (behn)
• loves to speak in english. Errrrm his version of it, where Pop is Pope, Hall is Hole. These variations of the language can at times result in ridiculously hilarious meanings. Try permutations with the above words and be creative. You would know what I mean! 😀
• look for a reason to perform (sing/dance). This reminds me of that scene in Kal ho na ho… right before the song Mahi Ve. 😛 Can be fun (to the extent of being lame! ;P watch KHNH for further reference ) . Even the most obese oldie gujjus can put those fit gymming youngsters to shame with their garba and dandiya moves.

Bengali: The Bengali Babu and Boudi

• love feesh (Fish) in a spicy jhol curry
• love their mustard in every form… you name it, they use it!
• uses mustard oil for cold, earache, cough, etc. It is the Bong panacea.
• have shrill voices and can be heard a couple of houses away owing to their habit to speak errm softly.
• obsess wearing bindi and the rule says, the bigger the better.
• like everything colourful from their houses to their clothes.

Bengali fact sheet: They are the true artists of India.  Most of out actors, musicians, poets hail from there. They are known for their flawless beauty and beautiful skin. Other than this a rule that applies to the Bong English is that ‘a’ and ‘o’ are equivalent. This means that Office is Affice, Mahima is Mohima, West Bengal is ‘Waste Bengal’  or ‘Bhaste Bengal’ and Veg is ‘Bhaej’.

UP waala’s :

A UP waale bhaiya is extremely hard to spot and classify. They come in different packages. One variety would be the paan eating ‘Kya kahat hain babua?’ types while another contrasting variety would be those ‘pehle aap‘ Lucknow Nawabs. The UP waalas are found all over India and claim to be the hindustani’s which is what makes them hard to distinguish. Cant decide which part of India a person belongs to? Must be a UP waale bhaiya.

On a personal note, I can relate to 3-4 of the categories mentioned above as my family has representations from the different states in India.